Why can’t we just say “30 minutes past 2” for 2:30? Not to mention that 2:35 is called “5 minutes past half three”! What is formiddag? And why is it considered wrong to say “10 o’clock in the morning” instead of “10 o’clock in the formiddag”?
Here’s a guide to help you navigate telling the time in Danish, so you can confidently answer the question, “Do you know what time it is?”
"Formiddag", noon, afternoon, evening, night, and morning
It's important to understand that in Danish, we primarily use the 24-hour clock in spoken language. Unlike in English, we don’t use AM and PM to specify the time of day. Instead, we have several expressions like “om formiddagen” (in the forenoon), “om eftermiddagen” (in the afternoon), “om aftenen” (in the evening), “om natten” (at night), “om morgenen” (in the morning), and “middag” (noon). Thus, 2 AM becomes “klokken 2 om natten”, and 2 PM becomes “klokken 2 om eftermiddagen”. This isn't too different from English, where you might say “6 in the morning” and “6 at night”.What complicates things a bit is that we have six expressions like “om formiddagen” and “om eftermiddagen”, which don’t exist in English.
Things don’t get any easier with these expressions being somewhat vague, often leading to debates about when morning turns into forenoon. For some, 5 AM is “om morgenen”, while for others, the morning doesn’t start until 6 AM. For some, 9:30 is still “om morgenen”, while others insist that it is already “om formiddagen”.
It can be a touchy subject if you want to maintain a good atmosphere. On the bright side, “om natten” actually refers to the time of day when most people are asleep, and “om morgenen” refers to the time people generally start waking up. This is different from English, where you might say “3 in the morning” for 3 AM, which is, of course, the middle of the night and a time when you should be sleeping. The same goes for “6 at night” for 6 PM, which we all know is “om aftenen” (in the evening) and not night.
To avoid confusion, here are some guidelines that most people will agree on.
In the morning
The morning is approximately from 5:00 AM to 9:30 AM (especially if you have kids who wake up early).
Om formiddagen/In the forenoon
You must absolutely not say “good morning” after 9:30 AM. You will immediately be mocked by your Danish friends and colleagues, who are ready to point out that it is most certainly not morning anymore. You may even be considered a bit lazy, as you apparently slept in and still think it’s morning. However, what you should say is a bit unclear, as "god formiddag" is mostly used as a response to a belated "godmorgen." The classic scenario is that you happily say “godmorgen” after 9:30, only to be answered with “It’s not morning anymore. It’s god formiddag!” Or you might just get a curt and corrective “God formiddag!” So a good tip is to stop saying good morning after 9:30 and simply say “hello”. That always works, and no one will think you're lazy or a late riser.
Noon
Noon is 12:00. This time is also called “frokost” (lunch) or “frokosttid” (lunchtime). If you say “good morning” after 12:00, you’ll be considered outright crazy. "Good afternoon" is an option, especially if you want to sound a bit older and more sophisticated. If you just want to sound normal, we recommend “hello” again.In the afternoon
In the evening
There’s a bit of debate about when night becomes morning. The population is likely divided based on whether they have young children or not. If you don’t have kids, you probably won’t consider 5:00 AM morning but will wait to get up until after 6:00 AM. You can say goodnight now, but it means you’re going to bed.
Additionally, you should completely avoid saying "thanks for tonight". You should simply say "tak for sidst" ("thanks for last time") when you've had an enjoyable evening or night with someone.
So, what time is it?
Now we come to the tricky and complicated part, but you can do it! You’ve already learned the numbers, so you can learn the time too.Half past 7 in the morning
We write it like this: 7.30. We don’t say “half past 7” like in English. We say “half 8”, meaning halfway between 7 and 8.In the same way, 8:30 becomes “half 9” and 9:30 becomes “half ten”, and so on.
If it’s clear from the context what time of day you’re referring to, you don’t need to say “in the morning” - but sometimes it’s helpful to add it to avoid confusion about whether you have invited someone for morning coffee or evening coffee.
It’s "five minutes past half ten"(9.35)
Now it gets even more complicated, and you might get a bit of a headache. Consider yourself warned.We say “past” until we reach 20 minutes past. So, 8:05 is “five minutes past eight”. And 8:20 is “twenty minutes past eight”. You can also shorten it and say "twenty past eight".
After that, we start saying “to”, so 8:21 is “nine minutes to half nine” and 8:25 is “five minutes to half nine”.
When it’s 8:30, you can breathe a sigh of relief and say “halv ni”, as you already learned.
Unfortunately, it gets complicated again because 8:31 is “one minute past half nine”. From there, it continues until we reach 8:40, which is “twenty minutes to nine”.
It's a quarter past 8
If the time includes a quarter, we mostly say "quarter", as in "a quarter past eight" or "a quarter to nine".What about in writing?
We will finish with a small detail. In Danish, we use a full stop (and not a colon) between hours and minutes, as you have seen on this page.You know what, all the tricky parts are actually over now, and you have made it all the way through telling the time in Danish. Now you just have to believe in yourself the next time someone asks you, “Hvad er klokken?”
